Students and Parents Witness History

Five Meridian women witnessed something that many only dream of witnessing.

The Meridian High School students and parents were in the Vatican last week and witnessed the moment when it was announced that a new pope had been elected. The group says they were initially told to expect an announcement at 12:00 that day.

"And that's when they told us that they're going to do it tonight and we think there's going to be white smoke," Madeline Griffin recalls. "So, that's one of the reasons we had the tensions of, we wanted to stay in case there was and you know, it was."

When the actual announcement was made, the group tells Newscenter 11 there were tons of people, but dead silence. They say they thankfully had a great view.

"We kind of pushed our way to the front, so we could be as close as possible," Katie Bruister admits. "So, we got some really good pictures and they had huge monitors everywhere that you could see."

"It was very exciting and memorable," Linda Bruister says. "I would have to rank it up there as one of the top memories of my life."

One thing that made it so tough waiting for the big announcement was that the group had been walking around all day, visiting various destinations. They toughed it out though.

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